Q2 Demand was up 3.0% over Q2 2025 (Q2 Law Firm Financial Index Report "LFFI Report", 8/10/26, Thomson Reuters). In fact, 2026 is on pace for the strongest demand showing since 2021's pandemic bounce-back. What is most impressive is that this year's demand growth isn't a rebound off a pandemic-suppressed base; it is on top of two strong preceding years.
All measured practice areas showed growth in the aggregate; however, M&A was nearly flat.
Rising Rates
Increased hours coupled with rising rates are the building blocks for a productive year. Indeed, firm leaders are optimistic at the midpoint of the year. In Law.com's Quarterly Law Firm Performance Survey, "nearly all respondents project another year of revenue growth in 2026, with Am Law 100 firms expressing the strongest optimism, as 92% forecast topline growth above 5% and 77% anticipate increases between 5%-14%" (Q2 Survey Analysis, Dan Masopust, 8/5/26, Law.com Compass).
Worked rates were up 7.1% in Q2 over Q2 2025 (LFFI Report). This year and as in prior years, realization has held up for most firms, though results were more mixed at the Am Law 100 level; according to Law.com's Q2 Survey Analysis, 61% of Am Law 100 respondents, 74% of Second Hundred respondents, and 91% of Midsize respondents noted that realization has improved or stayed steady.
Leverage Up
Equity partner hours fell in Q2 relative to Q2 2025, while associate, counsel, and non-equity partner hours rose.
Equity partners' hours drop could be the result of a particularly high baseline in Q2 2025, when clients sought high-level counsel due to uncertainty and flux in the early goings of the Second Trump Administration. Still, there appears to be a steady increase over the last few years in what the LFFI Report refers to as "demand leverage" - the hours worked by titles other than equity partners divided by the hours equity partners work themselves. The LFFI Report notes that the ratio of hours worked by non- equity partners against equity partners is at an all-time high.
